‘I Dropped My Left Earbud Onto the Subway Platform at Times Square’

Get in Line

Dear Diary:

I dropped my left earbud onto the subway platform at Times Square. It bounced twice, and then fell onto the tracks.

I didn’t want to buy a replacement if I didn’t have to, so I went to the man in the token booth upstairs.

I’m mortified to even tell you this, I said, but my earbud is on the uptown Q track.

You are the 16th person today, he said, dialing his phone. Come back in a half-hour.

When I did, there it was.

— Ian McKnight

Benched

Dear Diary:

I was in the habit of taking walks in Carl Schurz Park on early summer mornings, when the sun cast a lovely orange glow over the quiet East River esplanade.